You’re not the boss of me! Can teachers be disciplined by their local authority?

Posted 18/11/2014

This question was dealt with recently in the case of Davies v London Borough of Haringey, where an Assistant Teacher was suspended from teaching by her local authority.

Prior to being placed on suspension, the Assistant Teacher had been released from her teaching duties so that she could pursue trade union activities, firstly on a part time basis and then, from 2000, on a full-time basis. Her suspension had nothing to do with her teaching and instead related to a breach of a Code of Conduct.

Her employment contract named her employer as the local authority but placed her in a particular school. In practice, schools deal with the day to day management of teaching staff and so the Assistant Teacher, finding herself on suspension, appealed the decision to suspend her, stating that the local authority did not have the power to take such action. She argued only the school could discipline or suspend her and that the school’s own disciplinary procedure was the only procedure which could be used, should it be needed. She said that, because the local authority had used its own procedure, there was a breach of contract.

The court disagreed. They said her employment contract had been varied over time. She had ceased working full time at the school and since 2000 the school had little need, apart from the odd exchange of correspondence, to manage her as a member of their staff. At the time of her suspension, the court said she was a full-time non-practising teacher.

The court also found that there were no legislative provisions which stated that a school had exclusive power to discipline. The local authority had the power to discipline and could use its own procedure. In this case, the local authority’s procedure said it did not apply to teaching staff but because the Assistant Teacher was held to be a non-practising teacher, the procedure could be used.

This set of facts is very specific, but worth keeping in mind. Where an issue with a teacher has become known to the relevant local authority, that local authority may decide to investigate where the school has decided no action is warranted or taken no action whatsoever. A local authority could review a school’s reasoning and on its own investigation decide to enforce a sanction where its’ procedure does not exempt it from disciplining teaching staff. A teacher could, in effect, be subject to double jeopardy.

The Assistant Teacher in this particular case continued to strike after the judgment was received, which has caused controversy with parents. See Telegraph article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11221988/Parents-vow-to-bill-union-over-school-strikes.html